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I’ve been following Tom Anderson of MySpace fame on Google+ for some weeks now. Today, he made a bit of a gaffe, by posting an image that many said was sexist. He followed up several hours later with an apology, and posted this cool image of a juggler–but didn’t credit the artist.

As Anderson states in his profile, he is “enjoying being retired,” and he appears to be spending much of his time writing about the merits of G+. Anderson isn’t the most followed person on G+ (that honor goes to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg) but he may be one of the most active. He posts multiple times a day, and replies to several hundred comments.

The controversial image was of a busty woman surrounded by two men with nerdy glasses. One man’s shirt bore the letter “G.” The other one had “gle.” (The letters appear to be Photoshopped.) And the woman in the middle showed off her big breasts to put the “oo” in Google.

Was it sexist? Maybe. Tasteless? Perhaps.

I personally wasn’t offended by Anderson’s Google image, and I was delighted by his animated GIF. But I am bothered by the fact that pictures are routinely used in social media without crediting the artists or the source. I realize that many people take images off the Web to add some graphic interest to their blogs, comments or status updates. Some are mindful of copyrights and Creative Commons licenses. But many others seem unfamiliar with these laws and continue to share pictures and re-share them in social media without proper attribution.

As someone who’s worked in traditional journalism, where every picture is credited and paid for, this common practice seems like heresy. I tried to look for the artist behind the Juggle.gif, but only came up with a link to turbogallery.com.

Artists spend a lot of time making images. Let’s be respectful to them and give credit where it’s due. I asked Anderson who made the two images he used. Let’s see if I get a reply.

Update: I got a reply from Tom Anderson the morning after I posted the above entry. He writes, “I wish I knew whose it was. I credit when I know, but often its very diffcult to find out. The obvious answer is that artists needs to tag their own images. Some do, but others then crop them out. Maybe a good idea for a Google photo search — An image search that reveals the original creator.”

Thanks for your response, Tom! You’ve got a fan here.

Update 10/25/12: Luke Burrage is the artist of the GIF. He’s got a great blog post about the day he went viral.

I create stories, pictures, and websites. My career has spanned from old media (published in The New York Times) to new media (Instagram addict). When I'm not at my desk, you might find me hula-hooping or riding my bicycle. ›More